Well, you guys platform falls into the same problem.
I own nothing.
When the politics shifts and you need to kiss up, then this platform will not be any different.
I’d build on top of it if it was open source and we can self host, and I’d use your service if I can lift and shift in the event your leadership teams and investors take control, which will happen eventually.
So Id rather just take my time and build my own little thing where I can host everything myself and I have full control over the database and periodic backups, the email list and phone numbers, etc.
I agree. We need to get out and socialize and build community the old fashion way. That is the only way to win the battle. They will control anything and everything online. Let's encourage each other to build better and stronger 💪 ✨️ ❤️
I have a flip phone for travel and emergencies, but never wanted to get a "smart'"phone at all for assorted reasons. Don't need it! I email a ton though.
Me too! I still have a "landline" with the same number I've had for 45 years, no TV, no laptop, no tablet, no smartphone, just a little Tracfone/flip phone for power outages and traveling. I turn on my reliable old desktop computer twice a day to check my emails and the local news and weather. There's no contract for my flip phone, which costs me $23 per quarter. At age 82, I prefer to spend my time engaging with real people, pets, great-grandchildren, local musicians; getting lost in a good book with a cup of herbal tea and some dark chocolate (organic, Fair Traded, supporting women farmers in Africa), watching sunsets over the ocean, and musing over Substack posts and comment threads. My tribe!
You and I are old enough to remember PRE home computers and these horrible cell phones. Everywhere I go, people are staring at their phones, there's no communication anymore... it's truly creepy. Thank God I was born before all this, and I remember it! And I want it BACK. xo
Headed there myself. I deleted a crap-ton of apps, games and general BS off of my iPhone. I'm pretty much ready to be done with the digital world. I really miss my old unsupported flip phone that they pried away from me by cutting service.
They wanted to surveil us, and spy on us, and zap us... these "smart" phones are actually quite dangerous, and give off a LOT of EMF's... We should NOT be holding them up to our brain cases, nor carrying them around right next to our bodies... People don't realize... 5G is WAY too strong, it's cooking the whole planet... We really should back off and find better means than 5G... It's really bad for us! And the critters, and insects (THAT's where the bees went!) and even plants.
Check out "The Invisible Rainbow," the history of electricity. LOTS of citation, too.
And the most critical problem about all of this is... what happens to us as physical bodies, and why do I get the nagging feeling that we, as physical bodies, are losers in all this.. racket ?
Exactly. We writers are expendable idiots to these companies. They don’t have one speck of respect for how hard we work for pennies…Since I’ve been writing since I was about 10 years old (over half a century) I am sick to death of the BS.
A long time ago I started thinking that the living energy ? that gets us up in the morning, as in "élan vital" in French, was also the energy that pushes men and women to look for each other, find each other and ensure that there will be a next generation. The industrial revolution has deviated this energy to seriously curtail our RE-production, by pushing it into anthill PRO- duction, thereby wreaking havoc on us and our desire, not just sexual desire, but desire to get up in the morning and BE, with other living, breathing, feeling, and touching people.
But really, there is no way that we can not be dependant... dependant on other people with faces, or dependant on utility companies ? Aspiring to absolute ? independance is maybe our major folly right now, as it has been in the past, moreover.
Because we ARE. 5G is TOO STRONG. It's cooking the entire planet, not just us. A long list of disease and illness is actually EMF's. You'd be surprised how many things. And this is on purpose, they're trying to milk us for all the money they can get for health care before they just zap us all. Sorry, but that's the plan... So... we opt out! And shut it down! Poor critters, they have no voice.
@shawn take a look at Nostr, it's early days and onboarding is challenging but it's a protocol like the early days of the internet. It supports short and long form content, and community but most importantly nobody can shut you down as it's aiming to be censorship resistant.
So very different to these web2 SaaS platforms and also different to Ghost and standalone WordPress etc etc
If you feel uneasy about social media and its ownership, have you thought about stepping away from it? I owned my own small business for YEARS with zero social media exposure. I suspect it can still be done effectively....
Why the First Amendment is dead, or-- comatose. Except on Substack, but that means we can be trolled by malicious types... the price we pay for freedom. I'll take the trolls over censorship any time.
Building community the old fashioned way is fine in a world where your community of friends live in the same town ... but mine is spread all over the globe so internet socializing enables contact.
Build your community slowly. The gym, church, community centers, get out and start talking to people. Find your community because we all have people in our neighborhood that we can connect with. This will be so important going forward. Sending positive vibes. We got this!💪
The "old fashioned" way doesn't work well for me either. There are so many language and cultural and logistical barriers that limits building a community in person. My "community" is global too.
But trust an older gal for a sec-- real life community is what we humans have ALWAYS had... and it's too good to give it up. But the younger folks don't have this experience... not as we used to. It will take some time to "get it," and it will be work for a while, but... a good way to start is to go and sit in the stands and watch kids play sports... and talk to other people. Just one idea. ;) xo
One thing that we in Maine have accomplished is to push for a state Constitutional amendment that allows towns to declare food sovereignty (see the template here: local food rules.org) and now some 120 towns have passed it, by wide margins no less! Go to the link just cited for the particulars. Try it! You'll like it!
More power to you wherever you build. But with Substack, you own what matters: your mailing list and your content. That gives you a rock-solid guarantee that—even if a meteor were to strike the platform—you have total ownership of the assets that matter to your publication and business. You lose nothing. By building on Substack, you only gain. You get access to a network that helps you grow your audience, tools that help you maximize your reach and revenue, and a system that keeps evolving to give you the best publishing power on the internet.
YouTube, Threads, even TikTok content creators also own their own content.
Yeah, on Substack you own your mailing list. But ya' know why? Because YOU HAVE TO BRING IT! The point of those other platforms is that they BRING you an audience you had no access to previously.
You are reaching so hard here to take advantage of a situation that is orthogonal to your offering.
And if your town gets hit by a meteor, whoever survives is going to want to make physical contact with each other, because that's the essential Human experience.
We mustn't LOSE that, and that's what the Nasties want... for us to lose our connections to each other in REAL LIFE.
That's only true if you never make your own backups. It would be true of anything stored on your computer, without offsite backups, if you had a house fire (or meteor strike, etc.). I think Hamish's larger point is that you retain intellectual/copyright ownership of your own content.
I’ve been a part of many startups and once they get past a certain growth stage, they must abide by what their masters tell them to do. Who are YC, A18z and other firms.
It is an ecosystem so all portfolio companies must move as one unit to support each other.
So the newer guys coming into the system are going the route of open platform and open code. They make their money if you host on their servers, but if you want, you can host it yourself anywhere.
I'm not so sure. I think the CIA was behind a LOT of this whole thing, and they didn't mean to "do good." They meant to do some tricky spy stuff. Surveillance. Planting ideas and let's face it, Lies. It doesn't help when all the press is now corporate and the First Amendment is quite dead. Without Freedom of Speech, tyranny just walks right in.
Hey Shawn! It doesn’t look like you’ve used Substack.. your profile does not subscribe to anything and you haven’t published anything yet. When you start to use Substack, you get the email addresses and payment information of all of your subscribers and can always reach them, even if you pack up and leave - total ownership compared to what creators have been forced to deal when.
We haven’t changed our policies based on politics, and we never will.
This is untrue. Yes, if you leave Substack you can take the email addresses and payment info of your subscribers with. you, but a lot of platforms have that (like WordPress and Ghost). That's been true since the beginning of the web.
I don't know how it works with social media platforms, but why are you comparing yourself to social media platforms when the real comparison is (or should be) other site building/blog/newsletter platforms?
Net Neutrality has ended. The ISP's own the access to your site even if you are hosting it yourself.
At least for now, Substack is a good thing to build on. If you have to move later, hopefully your brand (Shawn McLean) will allow people to find you elsewhere. Updating your posts on multiple services like Substack and Facebook and others may also be a hedge.
I was thinking of developing an app that allowed users to communicate with each other over text messaging versus a website interface. All the messages would be stored on each person's device instead of some website. And when you commented on something, the comment would be texted to your list of members.
In this day and age of inexpensive disk it's probably doable. I have an app now My Info Index that stores information on your device instead of a website, but it does not do any texting. I'd have to learn.
Except that our devices are entirely hackable, and that was no accident. We are under surveillance, ALL of us, ALL the time. The downside of all this web thing.
Shawn, do you have a website or blog as your home base? And if so do you host on your own server? Asking as I'm waffling between having a Substack presence or creating a Wordpress.org type website with a blog and using MailerLite for email for my creative stuff.
In the old days, we used to do these things without PERMISSION.
It was called "Hosting," and it was done in real life, in real spaces, like libraries, pubs, and coffee shops. We could see each other's faces, we had tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, and MUSIC... Those were good times. Much collaboration and mingling. I miss that. It's much more HUMAN than typing and fighting, lol.
And yet, you folks have yet to answer any of the dozens of questions users have asked regarding the single-lane track Substackers must travel upon, lashed to Stripe.
Stripe cut off payments to Dr. Robert Malone about half a year ago (I believe), thus freezing his income from his Substack. Massive public pressure alone reversed that skullduggery. Morgthorak the Undead had his Stripe paused, which, again, temporarily cut off his revenue from Substack.
Liberty Magazine and Montag Publishing got nuked when the owner/operator got permabanned WITHOUT EXPLANATION from your Trust and Safety people.
I love what Substack started out as, and its continued potential. However, you guys need to start practicing some measure of transparency, because folks like myself, early adopters of Substack, are starting to give you guys the side-eye.
If Stripe continues to be your only payments processor, that side-eye is going to solidify into a permanent thing.
No worries, it isn't something that's broadly known to newcomers. Substack presently only partners with a single payments processor, Stripe. Stripe has a spotty history of occasionally suspending payments to certain users, often based on socio-political expression.
But I have SERIOUS ISSUES with Stripe. They have a monopoly and they SUCK. I had to simply refuse to respond to their pestering me, and they caused me to have the problem I couldn't fix, and they kept pestering me to fix it-- grrrrrr. I donut like them, not a bit.
Remember when the Biden administration pressured big tech companies to censor free speech? They didn’t need fact checkers and misinformation governance boards until the truth started getting out…
I set up a studio Substack and imported my mailing list in November, and it was the best business move I've ever made. Besides the relief of no longer being beholden to social media, I love the pro-creator environment here. Now I'm trying to convince artist and writer friends to join the migration.
I've been a reporter my whole life. Never had a real job. I've spent most of the past four decades writing articles that I would send to editors in the hope that they would publish them (and in doing so, not screw up my copy.) With substack, I can write what I want, how I want, with the graphics that I want. It's f'ing awesome. Again, I'm all in.
Use ALT TEXT to make your images visible for sight-impaired people. Use the voice-over option to make text stories work for sight-impaired people. For videos, enable automatic closed captions for hearing-impaired people or upload your own. I'm deaf--Substack works for me.
Express your support by subscribing to your favorites for a month. Or encourage those writers to set up a tip function so you can throw them a buck or two. There are workarounds. Not every reader is able to pay subscription fees and most writers get that.
many of us offer a free tier (I do @briefly !) that isn't much different from paid... my main goal is to share what I write with people and build a readership. I also offer an option to "buy me a coffee" for people who want to support a particular piece of writing, or just a low cost show of support (like a tip jar).
I agree it can be a challenge. I pay for a handful, but I have to limit myself. I still get great content by being a free subscriber and I "pay" by restacking/sharing their posts. My site is currently free. When I do turn on paid, I still plan to offer lots of it for free.
This is why I stayed when people had a big "controversy" over the idea that there were people with abhorrent views being able to publish on Substack. Free speech means you will see speech that is awful and degrading. WRITE ABOUT IT, FIGHT AGAINST IT! But as soon as you say "I want to speak freely but you should block speech I don't like" then you open the possibility that your own speech will be silenced one day.
Tina I feel your stress. But you can learn slowly and calmly. I run a publication that often posts about strategies for writing on and off line in today's world--I'm 75 years old and I've almost got this down. Message me if I can help you find your way.
I’m 75 too and learning faster than I thought I would and not doing anything unless it feels right to me. A nice place to be. Finding connections I wouldn’t have any other way.
Me, too! I just posted a comment asking the best way to learn what's possible and how-to! I'm guessing YouTube will help. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. PS I'm 74.
One of the problems with most on-line sites is that they keep changing. Yes I am 76 this year BUT I think 'older people' either should keep up or get out.
I have been here on substack when it was easy to use....now I am confused.
NOT only this but many elderly substack users are deaf.
I'm the same age as you and somewhat hard of hearing - but you don't need subtitles to read an article. So there is an option for authors to record their voices - fine, but hardly essential.
Tina, I can relate! I'm much older than you and have been using email and Zoom calls but do no social media. But would go Substack if I can get my political philosophy novel published.
My husband is 62 and started his Substack this year, he loves it! Give yourself time to learn, patience, and if you are able, find someone who is willing to help you :)
Someone willing to help -- how about a good Substack support team? There's so much that needs tweeking on the SS app, just for general posting. Icons all over the screen and no way to understand what they mean. Again, Hamish, why not create a thorough online how-to manual? The support Bot is a joke.
Take your time and play with it learn by doing which is sometimes scary, but that is how most people learn read tutorials there outthere, hate to say try Google when you.need help.
Yikes, Hamish lots of very unhappy people here. But before you sell to the big box operators, can we tweak your algorithm so I can specifically find a particular 'vein' of reader I'm looking for? With 17,000 writers and who knows how many readers, I know the vein is out there, I just need your help in finding it.
I agree.... and I am tired of being fed so many Substackers asking me to pay them to teach me how to get paid. And then Substack is getting 10% of their fees...hmmm... feels like I'm paying for IT support. Can we just get better IT support? I'd rather pay an annual user fee for this and learn from Substack directly OR provide us with a transparent list of people they partner with.
I’m tired of being asked to pay to be taught how to get paid too, but I just don’t respond to them. I go where there is mutual interest. It’s unique but easy to tell. I don’t like being bombarded with direct message requests from men who have not posted anything yet. Did I mention that I’m 75? I don’t think that makes me uninterest. It just makes me uninterested.
If I understand what you're saying, you're asking to be able to perform a very specific search query (also known, at the technical level, as a 'complex' search query) such that it also returns to you "the complete list" of what you looking for.
Will Bryk, the CEO of Exa-dot-ai, seems to be putting together such a "search solution" (AI-based) for companies to then integrate into their platforms to then offer them to their customers.
So, a potential customer for Exa could be the Substack platform.
More on Will Bryk's vision here (link below). An example of a very specify search query he gives is (paraphrasing): "[I'm an in-house researcher at a Venture Capitalist firm. I need to help the startups I fund hire PhDs who specialize in 'AI Chatbots']: return to me a list of all PhDs who have written a thesis on 'AI chatbots'." Result: it returns the complete list.
Hmm, Bob, Are you a publisher? If so please write to me at joliyoka@gmail.com. I have completed and had edited a political philosophy novel and looking to get it out there. Lots of scams out there I've found.
Unfortunately the same fate of all the big social media companies could still befall substack. I don't think the guys who made instagram in 2009 could have predicted how embroiled their platform would eventually become in international governance scandals. But as they grew, so did their responsibilities and allegiances. The same exact thing could happen here. Substack could get banned, it could get bought out, it could become another tool for the government. The only platform I've heard of that actually curtails this possibility is called NOSTR. It sounds cool but it still seems way too confusing for widespread adoption. But maybe that'll change.
All that said, I'm happy with substack so far. But it would be really cool if I was able to earn some more organic engagement. Nobody sees my shit. It feels impossible to grow my audience if none of my work gets sent outside of my personal network. Every time I get on here I see a new note from a different author expressing the same thing. If substack can't offer that type of organic growth, how is this different than me just sending emails to my friends? Just some thoughts
I'm one of those "junior" seniors. Still young, but retired. I came to Substack through an errant email, and haven't left; I don't intend to. I might not know everything there is to know about algorithms and all that shit, and to be honest, I don't give a rat's ass. Substack offers me something I've never had before, a platform to put out what I enjoy doing. I worked a blue collar swing-shift job and never got into the "social" side of on-line living -- no blogging, no website -- all I did was write stories. And that's what I still do. All this tik-tok shit, I couldn't care less. The videos Substack offers? I still do the same thing I started doing before Substack introduced theirs. I sit in front of my computer, put on Photo Booth, and read. One take. That's all I get. Then I put it on iMovies, and fiddle-fuck around with it until I'm satisfied. Substack allows me the freedom to be me, and I like that. I came here with nothing, and no knowledge of how to do anything. I've learned and grown with Substack. I'm here to stay. I'm here to prove to myself that it's worthwhile. I don't give a shit about Stripe. I don't care about anything, except putting out my stories, doing my readings, and thinking of new things I can try. I've carved out my own little niche, and I'm happy with it; you either like my writing, or you don't. I don't care.
If Substack fails in five years from now, I'll deal with it then. Until that time, why the hell would I care? Play with it all you like, guys. Do whatever you want. I'll take what appeals to me, try it on for size, and go from there. When you literally start out with nothing, everything is bonus. I never made a dime with my writing until I started my own Substack. I'm not making a fortune, but I gotta say it's better than a whack in the nuts with a hoe handle.
Thanks Ben. I'm a public school teacher, and the only reason I started a newsletter is because I told my students that they need to get hip with the future. Talk is cheap, so I needed to walk the talk because that's the only thing the respect, and here I am. I dig your insight!
As a school teacher, there's a lot of good fiction here for students to read...depending on their age of course. I think getting the kids to read new and up-coming writers would be a win-win scenario for everyone involved. Good on you for signing up!
I’m was never loyal to Tik Tok— felt like quick content generation and lacked the “thoughtfulness” aspect.
I’m new to Substack. I write— @surpriseinside and so far, the platform feels like it honors short and sweet as well as lengthy content types. I am happy here. 💛🔆
I launched the Road2Elsewhere at the suggestion of a friend, who saw that I had tons of content and thought I should do more with it. Now I know what to do: Share it with 10,000 of my new friends. After working a lifetime as a magazine editor who seldom heard from readers, I now hear from them everyday. And my paychecks arrive nearly every day as well. They're not as big as they used to be, but I'm working on that. So good to be in charge of my own shop, today. Plus, I've proven definitively that yes, you can tickle yourself. I do it once a week, and I'm still laughing. petermoore.substack.com
Well, you guys platform falls into the same problem.
I own nothing.
When the politics shifts and you need to kiss up, then this platform will not be any different.
I’d build on top of it if it was open source and we can self host, and I’d use your service if I can lift and shift in the event your leadership teams and investors take control, which will happen eventually.
So Id rather just take my time and build my own little thing where I can host everything myself and I have full control over the database and periodic backups, the email list and phone numbers, etc.
So something you guys should really think about.
I agree. We need to get out and socialize and build community the old fashion way. That is the only way to win the battle. They will control anything and everything online. Let's encourage each other to build better and stronger 💪 ✨️ ❤️
This is the realization I’m coming to, on the ground foot work.
The digital funnels are all controlled.
The search engines won’t show you, search is a mess too because it’s all gimmicks for who can manipulate the algorithms.
The mobile app marketplaces are heavily controlled.
The browsers are owned by the same companies.
So all digital entry points are owned and controlled.
I kept joking about throwing my phone in the ocean. I honestly think it’s the best idea I’ve had yet. 😏
I have a flip phone for travel and emergencies, but never wanted to get a "smart'"phone at all for assorted reasons. Don't need it! I email a ton though.
Me too! I still have a "landline" with the same number I've had for 45 years, no TV, no laptop, no tablet, no smartphone, just a little Tracfone/flip phone for power outages and traveling. I turn on my reliable old desktop computer twice a day to check my emails and the local news and weather. There's no contract for my flip phone, which costs me $23 per quarter. At age 82, I prefer to spend my time engaging with real people, pets, great-grandchildren, local musicians; getting lost in a good book with a cup of herbal tea and some dark chocolate (organic, Fair Traded, supporting women farmers in Africa), watching sunsets over the ocean, and musing over Substack posts and comment threads. My tribe!
You and I are old enough to remember PRE home computers and these horrible cell phones. Everywhere I go, people are staring at their phones, there's no communication anymore... it's truly creepy. Thank God I was born before all this, and I remember it! And I want it BACK. xo
Headed there myself. I deleted a crap-ton of apps, games and general BS off of my iPhone. I'm pretty much ready to be done with the digital world. I really miss my old unsupported flip phone that they pried away from me by cutting service.
They wanted to surveil us, and spy on us, and zap us... these "smart" phones are actually quite dangerous, and give off a LOT of EMF's... We should NOT be holding them up to our brain cases, nor carrying them around right next to our bodies... People don't realize... 5G is WAY too strong, it's cooking the whole planet... We really should back off and find better means than 5G... It's really bad for us! And the critters, and insects (THAT's where the bees went!) and even plants.
Check out "The Invisible Rainbow," the history of electricity. LOTS of citation, too.
Me, too, to Cate's comment.
And the most critical problem about all of this is... what happens to us as physical bodies, and why do I get the nagging feeling that we, as physical bodies, are losers in all this.. racket ?
Exactly. We writers are expendable idiots to these companies. They don’t have one speck of respect for how hard we work for pennies…Since I’ve been writing since I was about 10 years old (over half a century) I am sick to death of the BS.
I say, "If you can't live without your phone; Then you will die!"
Very few people will accept that reality. The more complex a device, the more dangerous is your "Dependence".
A long time ago I started thinking that the living energy ? that gets us up in the morning, as in "élan vital" in French, was also the energy that pushes men and women to look for each other, find each other and ensure that there will be a next generation. The industrial revolution has deviated this energy to seriously curtail our RE-production, by pushing it into anthill PRO- duction, thereby wreaking havoc on us and our desire, not just sexual desire, but desire to get up in the morning and BE, with other living, breathing, feeling, and touching people.
But really, there is no way that we can not be dependant... dependant on other people with faces, or dependant on utility companies ? Aspiring to absolute ? independance is maybe our major folly right now, as it has been in the past, moreover.
Ah, someone else who understand this! Good job.
Because we ARE. 5G is TOO STRONG. It's cooking the entire planet, not just us. A long list of disease and illness is actually EMF's. You'd be surprised how many things. And this is on purpose, they're trying to milk us for all the money they can get for health care before they just zap us all. Sorry, but that's the plan... So... we opt out! And shut it down! Poor critters, they have no voice.
We suspect it’s interfering with nutrient uptake in plants too.
I get it. But, tbh, the last thing the ocean needs is your phone. \_(ツ)_/¯
I will NOT throw mine in the ocean, but maybe still with the pickaxe...
I want to have a ritualistic KILLING of my phone... I'm thinking pickaxe...
And THEN into the ocean.
@shawn take a look at Nostr, it's early days and onboarding is challenging but it's a protocol like the early days of the internet. It supports short and long form content, and community but most importantly nobody can shut you down as it's aiming to be censorship resistant.
So very different to these web2 SaaS platforms and also different to Ghost and standalone WordPress etc etc
If you feel uneasy about social media and its ownership, have you thought about stepping away from it? I owned my own small business for YEARS with zero social media exposure. I suspect it can still be done effectively....
I'm trying to do that NOW. And I'm old enough to remember how lovely it was BEFORE CELL PHONES.
The CONVENIENCE will get you every time, and "They" know that!
Yesssssss............
This is part of the Globalist Agenda...
Why the First Amendment is dead, or-- comatose. Except on Substack, but that means we can be trolled by malicious types... the price we pay for freedom. I'll take the trolls over censorship any time.
I do believe that was the PLAN.
Building community the old fashioned way is fine in a world where your community of friends live in the same town ... but mine is spread all over the globe so internet socializing enables contact.
Build your community slowly. The gym, church, community centers, get out and start talking to people. Find your community because we all have people in our neighborhood that we can connect with. This will be so important going forward. Sending positive vibes. We got this!💪
You got it right, Sonia!
Email. Zoom calls.
Up to a point but "the old fashioned way" didn't/doesn't have those options, it's more based on guys you meet in the pub.
The "old fashioned" way doesn't work well for me either. There are so many language and cultural and logistical barriers that limits building a community in person. My "community" is global too.
You can have both.
But trust an older gal for a sec-- real life community is what we humans have ALWAYS had... and it's too good to give it up. But the younger folks don't have this experience... not as we used to. It will take some time to "get it," and it will be work for a while, but... a good way to start is to go and sit in the stands and watch kids play sports... and talk to other people. Just one idea. ;) xo
Or the coffee shop.
And... what happened to theater? It's gone. :(
So much change, for the worse.
One thing that we in Maine have accomplished is to push for a state Constitutional amendment that allows towns to declare food sovereignty (see the template here: local food rules.org) and now some 120 towns have passed it, by wide margins no less! Go to the link just cited for the particulars. Try it! You'll like it!
Correction: no space site is localfoodrules.org
That’s very fortunate!
Excellent idea !
And we should take back our farmlands from CORPORATE ownership.
That is just Wrong.
Yes!
The TIME is NOW!!
CF, The Ultimate Brand Strategist
I agree, Sonia. I’ll stick with my people on social media & blog, Before Sundown. That’s secure.
cerobinsonauthor.com
YES.
More power to you wherever you build. But with Substack, you own what matters: your mailing list and your content. That gives you a rock-solid guarantee that—even if a meteor were to strike the platform—you have total ownership of the assets that matter to your publication and business. You lose nothing. By building on Substack, you only gain. You get access to a network that helps you grow your audience, tools that help you maximize your reach and revenue, and a system that keeps evolving to give you the best publishing power on the internet.
YouTube, Threads, even TikTok content creators also own their own content.
Yeah, on Substack you own your mailing list. But ya' know why? Because YOU HAVE TO BRING IT! The point of those other platforms is that they BRING you an audience you had no access to previously.
You are reaching so hard here to take advantage of a situation that is orthogonal to your offering.
Yeah, maybe, but there's no censorship here.
And if your town gets hit by a meteor, whoever survives is going to want to make physical contact with each other, because that's the essential Human experience.
We mustn't LOSE that, and that's what the Nasties want... for us to lose our connections to each other in REAL LIFE.
Except that if you get hit by meteor, all your servers will be destroyed and I'd be left with nothing. No thanks.
So where are you hosting your online content that's completely immune to meteor strike?
That's only true if you never make your own backups. It would be true of anything stored on your computer, without offsite backups, if you had a house fire (or meteor strike, etc.). I think Hamish's larger point is that you retain intellectual/copyright ownership of your own content.
You'd be left with REAL LIFE, lol. It's not so bad!
I want to believe in the good they’re doing. I fear like with any growth, interests and influence do to. Tread lightly I suppose.
They all set out to do good.
I’ve been a part of many startups and once they get past a certain growth stage, they must abide by what their masters tell them to do. Who are YC, A18z and other firms.
It is an ecosystem so all portfolio companies must move as one unit to support each other.
So the newer guys coming into the system are going the route of open platform and open code. They make their money if you host on their servers, but if you want, you can host it yourself anywhere.
All we can really do is enjoy it while it lasts.
I'm not so sure. I think the CIA was behind a LOT of this whole thing, and they didn't mean to "do good." They meant to do some tricky spy stuff. Surveillance. Planting ideas and let's face it, Lies. It doesn't help when all the press is now corporate and the First Amendment is quite dead. Without Freedom of Speech, tyranny just walks right in.
Yes, I’m familiar with the process. Wishing them well until then! Enjoy the ride guys, happy to see where it goes!
Hey Shawn! It doesn’t look like you’ve used Substack.. your profile does not subscribe to anything and you haven’t published anything yet. When you start to use Substack, you get the email addresses and payment information of all of your subscribers and can always reach them, even if you pack up and leave - total ownership compared to what creators have been forced to deal when.
We haven’t changed our policies based on politics, and we never will.
How about a list of my followers?
This is untrue. Yes, if you leave Substack you can take the email addresses and payment info of your subscribers with. you, but a lot of platforms have that (like WordPress and Ghost). That's been true since the beginning of the web.
I don't know how it works with social media platforms, but why are you comparing yourself to social media platforms when the real comparison is (or should be) other site building/blog/newsletter platforms?
Net Neutrality has ended. The ISP's own the access to your site even if you are hosting it yourself.
At least for now, Substack is a good thing to build on. If you have to move later, hopefully your brand (Shawn McLean) will allow people to find you elsewhere. Updating your posts on multiple services like Substack and Facebook and others may also be a hedge.
I was thinking of developing an app that allowed users to communicate with each other over text messaging versus a website interface. All the messages would be stored on each person's device instead of some website. And when you commented on something, the comment would be texted to your list of members.
In this day and age of inexpensive disk it's probably doable. I have an app now My Info Index that stores information on your device instead of a website, but it does not do any texting. I'd have to learn.
Except that our devices are entirely hackable, and that was no accident. We are under surveillance, ALL of us, ALL the time. The downside of all this web thing.
Shawn, do you have a website or blog as your home base? And if so do you host on your own server? Asking as I'm waffling between having a Substack presence or creating a Wordpress.org type website with a blog and using MailerLite for email for my creative stuff.
None of them suited my needs.
I played around with Substack, I used to write on LinkedIn, tested out twitter, had my own on Wordpress and even old school blogger from google.
I tried out the web3 stuff such as mirror but they still didn’t suit my needs.
So I ended up building something very specific for myself.
I read a lot and wanted something like a Goodreads, substack and infused with my own research workflows.
So I have my bookshelves here: https://www.sovoli.com/shawn/shelves
Then I can create a form of post, this post can be annotations from books with AI helping to compile the connections to the books in the background like this: https://www.sovoli.com/shawn/the-journey-to-conscious-reasoning-understanding-ego-and-the-environment
Or I can make a regular post like this: https://www.sovoli.com/shawn/the-wise-men
I’m playing around with having bots comment on the content to point me to further readings in a cross disciplinary way, this is just scripted but it looks like this below and needs fine tuning: https://www.sovoli.com/shawn/reflections-on-balance-energy-and-the-guiding-force
My primary community is people on WhatsApp so I need to integrate with that and run notifications and subscribing via WhatsApp numbers.
Will see how it goes, the code is also source available here: https://github.com/shawnmclean/sovoli
(it actually started out as a ChatGPT plugin to compile research and send them to my database)
Yeah, what he said.
This is SADD!! But TRUE!!
CF, The Ultimate Brand Strategist
In the old days, we used to do these things without PERMISSION.
It was called "Hosting," and it was done in real life, in real spaces, like libraries, pubs, and coffee shops. We could see each other's faces, we had tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, and MUSIC... Those were good times. Much collaboration and mingling. I miss that. It's much more HUMAN than typing and fighting, lol.
And yet, you folks have yet to answer any of the dozens of questions users have asked regarding the single-lane track Substackers must travel upon, lashed to Stripe.
Stripe cut off payments to Dr. Robert Malone about half a year ago (I believe), thus freezing his income from his Substack. Massive public pressure alone reversed that skullduggery. Morgthorak the Undead had his Stripe paused, which, again, temporarily cut off his revenue from Substack.
Liberty Magazine and Montag Publishing got nuked when the owner/operator got permabanned WITHOUT EXPLANATION from your Trust and Safety people.
I love what Substack started out as, and its continued potential. However, you guys need to start practicing some measure of transparency, because folks like myself, early adopters of Substack, are starting to give you guys the side-eye.
If Stripe continues to be your only payments processor, that side-eye is going to solidify into a permanent thing.
Please explain, I am new to the platform??
No worries, it isn't something that's broadly known to newcomers. Substack presently only partners with a single payments processor, Stripe. Stripe has a spotty history of occasionally suspending payments to certain users, often based on socio-political expression.
They are IRKSOME.
Thank you for clarification. I subscribe to your community and looking to join soon!! Take care on this MLK Day!!
I have no interest in Malone.
But I have SERIOUS ISSUES with Stripe. They have a monopoly and they SUCK. I had to simply refuse to respond to their pestering me, and they caused me to have the problem I couldn't fix, and they kept pestering me to fix it-- grrrrrr. I donut like them, not a bit.
AMEN!
P.S. Thank you, Chris! Thank you, Hamish! Thank you, Jaira! Soon this may be the last place in America where free expression reigns!
Remember when the Biden administration pressured big tech companies to censor free speech? They didn’t need fact checkers and misinformation governance boards until the truth started getting out…
Couldn’t agree more. All these Tik Tok creators waking up and will move to Substack. I see Substack being the platform of the future 👏🏼
I’ve been telling all my friends, if they’re going to use social media, use Substack. 💥
Substack is the place to be 🧡
I set up a studio Substack and imported my mailing list in November, and it was the best business move I've ever made. Besides the relief of no longer being beholden to social media, I love the pro-creator environment here. Now I'm trying to convince artist and writer friends to join the migration.
I am all in on Substack. I love it.
I've been a reporter my whole life. Never had a real job. I've spent most of the past four decades writing articles that I would send to editors in the hope that they would publish them (and in doing so, not screw up my copy.) With substack, I can write what I want, how I want, with the graphics that I want. It's f'ing awesome. Again, I'm all in.
DO you incorporate subtitles for the deaf?
Use ALT TEXT to make your images visible for sight-impaired people. Use the voice-over option to make text stories work for sight-impaired people. For videos, enable automatic closed captions for hearing-impaired people or upload your own. I'm deaf--Substack works for me.
I love this group but I can’t afford to pay each writer $50. I wish there was a fee for the entire website.
Express your support by subscribing to your favorites for a month. Or encourage those writers to set up a tip function so you can throw them a buck or two. There are workarounds. Not every reader is able to pay subscription fees and most writers get that.
many of us offer a free tier (I do @briefly !) that isn't much different from paid... my main goal is to share what I write with people and build a readership. I also offer an option to "buy me a coffee" for people who want to support a particular piece of writing, or just a low cost show of support (like a tip jar).
I agree it can be a challenge. I pay for a handful, but I have to limit myself. I still get great content by being a free subscriber and I "pay" by restacking/sharing their posts. My site is currently free. When I do turn on paid, I still plan to offer lots of it for free.
This is why I stayed when people had a big "controversy" over the idea that there were people with abhorrent views being able to publish on Substack. Free speech means you will see speech that is awful and degrading. WRITE ABOUT IT, FIGHT AGAINST IT! But as soon as you say "I want to speak freely but you should block speech I don't like" then you open the possibility that your own speech will be silenced one day.
Well said thank you 😊
How is creating on the substack platform differnt from creating on the TicTok platform. You do not own either one.
You own every subscribers’ email and payment info! So no matter what happens, you can directly reach your audience and take them with you.
I'm a 65 year old woman, and don't really know what I'm doing.
I'm trying to figure it all out.
I wasn't born during this technology based world.
It's hard to understand.
Tina I feel your stress. But you can learn slowly and calmly. I run a publication that often posts about strategies for writing on and off line in today's world--I'm 75 years old and I've almost got this down. Message me if I can help you find your way.
Can I ask some questions about it also? How would I contact you? Thanks,
I think you can message me on Substack, but for sure throw me an email mkpelland at gmail
Thank you so very much 💜
I’m 75 too and learning faster than I thought I would and not doing anything unless it feels right to me. A nice place to be. Finding connections I wouldn’t have any other way.
Me, too! I just posted a comment asking the best way to learn what's possible and how-to! I'm guessing YouTube will help. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. PS I'm 74.
One of the problems with most on-line sites is that they keep changing. Yes I am 76 this year BUT I think 'older people' either should keep up or get out.
I have been here on substack when it was easy to use....now I am confused.
NOT only this but many elderly substack users are deaf.
I see a reading and their are NO subtitles.
Keep it simple substack.
I'm the same age as you and somewhat hard of hearing - but you don't need subtitles to read an article. So there is an option for authors to record their voices - fine, but hardly essential.
Wow—there are quite a few if us in our 70s ready to dispel the myths about impending dementia.
And it’s OK once in a while, not to use commas.
PS writing is a lot more interesting to me than working crossword puzzles.
Tina, I can relate! I'm much older than you and have been using email and Zoom calls but do no social media. But would go Substack if I can get my political philosophy novel published.
My husband is 62 and started his Substack this year, he loves it! Give yourself time to learn, patience, and if you are able, find someone who is willing to help you :)
Someone willing to help -- how about a good Substack support team? There's so much that needs tweeking on the SS app, just for general posting. Icons all over the screen and no way to understand what they mean. Again, Hamish, why not create a thorough online how-to manual? The support Bot is a joke.
Take your time and play with it learn by doing which is sometimes scary, but that is how most people learn read tutorials there outthere, hate to say try Google when you.need help.
Yes me too. IF websites keep changing....what is the 'outcome?'
It's very easy - nothing difficult here (writing as someone a decade older than you)
Thanks for the tip.
"We are here to serve you, not advertisers."
Yikes, Hamish lots of very unhappy people here. But before you sell to the big box operators, can we tweak your algorithm so I can specifically find a particular 'vein' of reader I'm looking for? With 17,000 writers and who knows how many readers, I know the vein is out there, I just need your help in finding it.
I agree.... and I am tired of being fed so many Substackers asking me to pay them to teach me how to get paid. And then Substack is getting 10% of their fees...hmmm... feels like I'm paying for IT support. Can we just get better IT support? I'd rather pay an annual user fee for this and learn from Substack directly OR provide us with a transparent list of people they partner with.
I’m tired of being asked to pay to be taught how to get paid too, but I just don’t respond to them. I go where there is mutual interest. It’s unique but easy to tell. I don’t like being bombarded with direct message requests from men who have not posted anything yet. Did I mention that I’m 75? I don’t think that makes me uninterest. It just makes me uninterested.
Don’t think that makes me uninteresting, just uninterested.
If I understand what you're saying, you're asking to be able to perform a very specific search query (also known, at the technical level, as a 'complex' search query) such that it also returns to you "the complete list" of what you looking for.
Will Bryk, the CEO of Exa-dot-ai, seems to be putting together such a "search solution" (AI-based) for companies to then integrate into their platforms to then offer them to their customers.
So, a potential customer for Exa could be the Substack platform.
More on Will Bryk's vision here (link below). An example of a very specify search query he gives is (paraphrasing): "[I'm an in-house researcher at a Venture Capitalist firm. I need to help the startups I fund hire PhDs who specialize in 'AI Chatbots']: return to me a list of all PhDs who have written a thesis on 'AI chatbots'." Result: it returns the complete list.
https://www.latent.space/p/exa
Hmm, Bob, Are you a publisher? If so please write to me at joliyoka@gmail.com. I have completed and had edited a political philosophy novel and looking to get it out there. Lots of scams out there I've found.
Unfortunately the same fate of all the big social media companies could still befall substack. I don't think the guys who made instagram in 2009 could have predicted how embroiled their platform would eventually become in international governance scandals. But as they grew, so did their responsibilities and allegiances. The same exact thing could happen here. Substack could get banned, it could get bought out, it could become another tool for the government. The only platform I've heard of that actually curtails this possibility is called NOSTR. It sounds cool but it still seems way too confusing for widespread adoption. But maybe that'll change.
All that said, I'm happy with substack so far. But it would be really cool if I was able to earn some more organic engagement. Nobody sees my shit. It feels impossible to grow my audience if none of my work gets sent outside of my personal network. Every time I get on here I see a new note from a different author expressing the same thing. If substack can't offer that type of organic growth, how is this different than me just sending emails to my friends? Just some thoughts
Lots of people in this comment thread echoing these sentiments! Hope substack can do something to address peoples' need for organic growth!
I'm one of those "junior" seniors. Still young, but retired. I came to Substack through an errant email, and haven't left; I don't intend to. I might not know everything there is to know about algorithms and all that shit, and to be honest, I don't give a rat's ass. Substack offers me something I've never had before, a platform to put out what I enjoy doing. I worked a blue collar swing-shift job and never got into the "social" side of on-line living -- no blogging, no website -- all I did was write stories. And that's what I still do. All this tik-tok shit, I couldn't care less. The videos Substack offers? I still do the same thing I started doing before Substack introduced theirs. I sit in front of my computer, put on Photo Booth, and read. One take. That's all I get. Then I put it on iMovies, and fiddle-fuck around with it until I'm satisfied. Substack allows me the freedom to be me, and I like that. I came here with nothing, and no knowledge of how to do anything. I've learned and grown with Substack. I'm here to stay. I'm here to prove to myself that it's worthwhile. I don't give a shit about Stripe. I don't care about anything, except putting out my stories, doing my readings, and thinking of new things I can try. I've carved out my own little niche, and I'm happy with it; you either like my writing, or you don't. I don't care.
If Substack fails in five years from now, I'll deal with it then. Until that time, why the hell would I care? Play with it all you like, guys. Do whatever you want. I'll take what appeals to me, try it on for size, and go from there. When you literally start out with nothing, everything is bonus. I never made a dime with my writing until I started my own Substack. I'm not making a fortune, but I gotta say it's better than a whack in the nuts with a hoe handle.
Thanks Ben. I'm a public school teacher, and the only reason I started a newsletter is because I told my students that they need to get hip with the future. Talk is cheap, so I needed to walk the talk because that's the only thing the respect, and here I am. I dig your insight!
As a school teacher, there's a lot of good fiction here for students to read...depending on their age of course. I think getting the kids to read new and up-coming writers would be a win-win scenario for everyone involved. Good on you for signing up!
Blue collar background and a late in life PhD. Substack lets me be me. If and when it doesn’t, I’ll deal with it, as you say.
What a wonderful post! This resonates with me right now. Thanks!
I’m was never loyal to Tik Tok— felt like quick content generation and lacked the “thoughtfulness” aspect.
I’m new to Substack. I write— @surpriseinside and so far, the platform feels like it honors short and sweet as well as lengthy content types. I am happy here. 💛🔆
I launched the Road2Elsewhere at the suggestion of a friend, who saw that I had tons of content and thought I should do more with it. Now I know what to do: Share it with 10,000 of my new friends. After working a lifetime as a magazine editor who seldom heard from readers, I now hear from them everyday. And my paychecks arrive nearly every day as well. They're not as big as they used to be, but I'm working on that. So good to be in charge of my own shop, today. Plus, I've proven definitively that yes, you can tickle yourself. I do it once a week, and I'm still laughing. petermoore.substack.com